Pride of Hawaii (RETIRED) Cruise Review to Hawaii

Longest Week of our lives

Sail Date: November 05, 2007

Reviewed:6 years ago

Traveled As: Couple

Room Type: Balcony

After a pleasant on time flight with NW Airlines and a nice stay at the Waikiki Marriot we were in for the longest week of our lives. We had booked a deck 9 Starboard side Ocean View Stateroom with outside private balcony. Knowing what I know now I would have booked port side as all of the great scenery is best viewed from that side. My fault for not investigating more carefully. This cruise started off badly before we left home and went down hill from there. NCL cruise tours made some mistakes on our bookings and I finally threw up my hands, canceled all except the after cruise pearl harbor/USS Missouri tour and re booked with a private company. This was to haunt us during and after the cruise. We were able to get on ship without too much hassle. We were told our cabins were not ready and to go to the buffet for lunch. I was surprised the NCL food had deteriorated in taste and variety so quickly in the two years since our last NCL cruise to Alaska. Spying the sun just over the yard arm we decided to to have an ice cold draft beer, wrong, lots of taps but not a drop of draft beer on the Pride of Hawaii. After settling for bottled we toured the ship while waiting for our cabin to be made ready. The ship was clean and the staff was their usual friendly first day selves. Our deck was announced ready for occupancy about 2 hours after boarding. When we arrived at the cabin we found a broken mirror taped in place that was never fixed. We also found a broken toilet seat laying next to the toilet. We called room service and it was repaired the same day. The safe was also inoperable and was repaired the same day.The interconnecting doors on the balcony were never locked during the whole cruise, even after several complaints. I will not go to far into the food during the rest of the cruise except to say is was mediocre at best in all of the free restaurants and both dining rooms. We did not eat in the pay restaurants. The entertainment was amateurish at best with the exception of the Guitar Player. We had a problem with our on board account that turned out to be a re-occurring ship computer problem. They comped us a bottle of wine the first time it happened and simply took our complaints with a smile an apology after that. It sometimes went like this, buy something on the ship, get refused, wait through a line at reception to be told everything was fixed go back, re purchase . First night on the ship was great with a rolling sea. Some of the other passengers complained about this, we thought it was relaxing. Listening to the constant flushing of the toilets in other cabins was a different matter. First day in Hilo we rented a car and toured the Volcano National park, perfect day. Back to t he ship to be informed we would not be able to go to Maui the next day because of an oil spill in the harbor. We had a "Fun Day At Sea" instead, NOT. Had to line up at reception and cancel our tours for our first day in Maui, a good portion of the day consumed. Third day we were told Maui still was still not available and we would go to Kona next which we should have visited on the 5th day. More waiting in line to cancel and try to re book tours for both ports, there was nothing worthwhile available. The Passengers and Crew were getting pretty cranky and restless at this point. Then the Norwalk virus was discovered on board. The food and service got worse. By this time we were counting the days and hours remaining aboard. Finally got to Maui for our single day there. Having had to cancel all of our tours we rented a car and drove the road to Hanna. Very pretty trip. The twisty windy road and one lane bridges will keep you on your toes an d test y our driving skills. Back to the ship and on to Kuai, our favorite Island. Again, we rented a car. We toured the Island the first day and for a few more hours the second day. I have one word to describe that island. Beautiful. Continued below

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